Stranded on the shores of a mysterious island, you must learn to survive. Use your cunning to kill or tame the primeval creatures roaming the land, and encounter other players to survive, dominate... and escape!

Recent Reviews:

Mixed
(6,708)
- 58% of the 6,708 user reviews in the last 30 days are positive.

All Reviews:

Mixed
(127,814)
- 67% of the 127,814 user reviews for this game are positive.

Yes, it will, and all of the items are being designed to be useful on more than just Aberration.

Survivor danleveille asks, "How will taming work in Aberration? Will there be any major changes to the taming mechanic or will it remain roughly similar? Will there be Kibble? Asking for a friend."

For your “friend”, I can say that while most creatures will be similar in core mechanics to The Island creatures, there are a few that are rather batsh$t crazy to tame. One even involves xenomorphic impregnation and chestbursting.

Survivor xViiVD asks, "I have heard from multiple sources that there will be no fliers on this map. Will you restrict any form of transferring fliers or will tribes be allowed to move pteras and wyverns over to Aberration from the island?"

By default and on Official Servers there will not be any rideable fliers transferrable onto the map, in order to encourage new forms of traversal. This will be a server option of course.

Survivor OnePotatoChip asks, "Does this map have more of a PvE focus or at least more PvE oriented content?"

In my view Aberration is the most PvE oriented ARK yet, with more story development than ever before, and more unique non-natural mythos “landmarks” to find and explore.

Survivor WeebTrash asks, "I heard that because of how Aberration's map is designed, gamma won't work on it to make it lighter, is this true? If so, is there gonna be a server option for unofficials to enable gamma working on that map?"

Not sure where you heard that, no plans to change the current gamma functionality.

Survivor RaifuForLaifu asks, "What are "Element Chambers"?"

They are zones of intense radiation where it is possible to collect Element Ore, as well as encounter certain hideous, aggressive creatures.

Survivor HighFlyer15 asks, "Unlike Scorched Earth, where we saw a whole lot of creatures from the Island, can we expect only to see new creatures on Aberration?"

Aberration will include various biome-appropriate creatures from The Island, similar to Scorched Earth.

Survivor Wolf Angelus asks, "What has persuaded you guys to go the sci-fi approach? You could have picked many different routes, but what was the logical thought for this choice, and the incorporation of radiation, and other such things that are "space-themed"?"

Specifically in this case, Aberration was chosen in order to develop the next story arc of… ARK!

Survivor Blackwolfe asks, "Will the cliff platforms be like the tree platforms in the way that they can only be placed in specific spots or will you be able to place them anywhere? Will you be able to snap things on cliff platforms?"

You can build the cliff platforms onto ANY surface that has sufficient attachment area, not only at pre-determined locations.

Survivor PuffyPony asks, "A big part of Aberration is the idea that a malfunctioning ARK led to mutations in its population. Are we getting/can we get lore into what developed into what? Like the Lantern Pug appears to be a mutated Angler, the Rock Drake could be a Megalania, the crazy Mysterious Mysteries #1 a Thylacoleo... I'd love to get some of the background on that, since it'd tie the DLC into the base game nicely."

Yes, there will be some indications along those lines. What developed into the Nameless?

Survivor alcarazr asks, "Will we be able to directly harvest Element in Aberration, either as a resource (with a new tool, such as a special pick) or by killing certain creatures?"

Yes.

Survivor Deaner asks, "Will Aberration have a new building tier just like Scorched Earth got the adobe building tier?"

It won’t have a completely unique tileset, but will have a lot of new utility structures.

Survivor lysergicsid asks, "It was mentioned that the Ark in Aberration has an unstable atmosphere, leaks, etc. so how does that tie into the gameplay, if at all? Like are there some areas where you can suffocate outside of water? If so, will there be any masks or tools that can counteract this?"

Yes there are areas with Low or No Oxygen, and of course the incredibly harsh surface radiation, along with various other environmental hazards. Yeah, there’s a new Hazard Suit designed to aid in counter-acting SOME of these conditions.

Survivor TalSet asks, "This world is supposed to be hostile with mutants correct? Is it going to be one of those situations where its very difficult to start and you constantly die as you spawn?"

We’re trying to make the initial difficulty ramp more forgiving on this ARK, for example the giant “Fertile Chamber” is actually pretty chill, and things get more difficult the deeper you go...

Survivor DauntedVenus asks, "Well, the question most of the community will ask is... will there be legacy servers for this DLC?"

Of course!

Survivor DiloFodder asks, "Will you be able to fire weapons from the back of the rock wyvern? I think it would be equal parts amazing and terrifying to have a firing platform for a sniper that functions as a glider and can utilize a basic active camouflage and would be awesome to use for guerrilla style warfare."

Yes.

Survivor Ashtray asks, "Will the cave climbing picks be able to be used freely on any cliff/cave or only on certain areas?"

Freely on essentially any surface :)

Survivor Colonel Siberia asks, "How useful a role will regular land animals with no climbing dynamics be in moving about? Will we be able to go from one biome to the next without needing to switch to a more mobile creature like the showcased rock drake? Or will there be geographical limitations that necessitate adding all-terrain creatures to our arsenals and adapting to the topography?"

Most of Aberrations creatures have capabilities to move through the complex environment, and there are also new structures to aid in both primitive and high-tech dino mobility...

Survivor Colonel Siberia asks, "How will earthquakes change the way players build their bases and raise their dinos? Are the earthquakes capable of damaging structures and, if so, are there any ways we can mitigate these effects?"

They are capable of damaging structures, but they’re only intense in certain areas of certain biomes. Building permanent bases there is not advised!

Survivor Colonel Siberia asks, "How will radiation affect the way players explore and how will hazard suits work with the system? Will there be any strange creatures that survive, and possibly even thrive, in radiation zones? Is the radiation solely on the surface, or will we encounter some underground, as well?"

Yes, a few creature types benefit from radiation. It’s not solely on the surface, but is most intense there. The Hazard Suit mitigates radiation and other extreme environmental dangers, but its durability is decreased over time when under such effects.

ARK: 2x Evolution Event Weekend!

Survivors across ALL Platforms will be receiving a special Evolution Event++ perk this weekend! It's already live now and will remain active until Monday the 25th at 12PM EST. All Official Servers will be undergoing this evolutionary change which includes:

September 15

What an intriguing discovery survivors, can you guess what creature it is?

ARK Digest 49!

Here is our question and answer session with Lead Designer, Lead Programmer, Co-Creative Director of ARK: Survival Evolved, and Co-Founder of Studio Wildcard: Jeremy "Drake" Stieglitz!

Survivor JozaSeraf asks, “So now when titanboa's are tameable, is there possibilaty to add them some sort of turret mode? Like they only bite until target is unconscious? That way we can have pits full of snakes and drop dino's in.”

Yeah, we’ll add a general AI option for dinos to only attack Conscious targets.

Survivor TranqRex asks, “You’re not able to Scorched Earth on a Player Dedicated Server unless you own the DLC. Will this be changed, as you can host on PC without.”

Unfortunately not, because we can’t download the necessary content files onto the game client without the player having ownership of the DLC itself.

Survivor Hazelnut20 asks, “Could you create a 'flee' aggression status, so that if something hits your dinosaur, that it runs away, instead of standing in direct line of fire?”

Sure, we’ll add that -- no guarantees as to how effective it’ll be against a determined attacker, however!

Survivor Hosscat asks, “Being an achievement hunter and enjoying some of the challenges ARK gives to obtain some of the achievements I was excited to see The Center map had its own specific achievement. Will more achievements for other maps be released, such as Scorched Earth or Ragnarok only achievements?”

Yes, when Ragnarok is done, we’ll add Achivements for it. Scorched Earth and Aberration will also be getting achievements.

Survivor AbeHikura asks, “are the future expansions already decided by the team (hence the season pass) or are you guys carefully monitoring us for inspiration? Will these expansions be the same or larger than Scorched earth (content wise)?”

We’ve got the third Expansion in early design phase -- though much of its content is yet to be determined and will also be in response to continued feedback. Beyond that, we’ll be in continuous brainstorming mode :)

Survivor Mendoza asks, “Have you considered any further the decision to make above ground beacon drops fully random?”

We’ll be adding a configuration option for this in the very near future.

Survivor TheGamingGomer asks, “Will we get splitscreen on console player dedicated servers? My brother and our friend would like to be able to play together without having three consoles or all getting on at the same time.”

We can’t do it because the tethering logic is necessary for splitscreen to function properly, and the tethering logic only runs in non-dedicated mode.

Survivor Ulkusus asks, “Command/execute on starting ark: scan your steam achievements and update your local profile accordingly so one can get skins back after a reinstall of the game?”

Yes, we will do this. Probably doesn’t need to be a command-line either, can likely just run upon each startup. Will investigate ASAP.

Survivor EternalUniverse asks, “Can we please have a respawn protection (ya'know when you respawn and you are into that animation that takes a long time to finish and then you get spawn killed by a dino?)”

We’ll make a respawning player not targetable by Wild Dino AI’s.

Survivor Nightmare2772 asks, “Will Aberration feature a new plant species? Plant Species Z maybe? I like the idea of a huge carnivorous plant.”

It will, and it’s called Plant Species Z :-P

Survivor KraziestKraken asks, “This is kind of a random question, but is the woman riding the raptor on the box art Helena? I've always thought so, but i'd like confirmation. “

As a matter of fact, she is.

Survivor NeckRipper asks, “Will the dlc content of Aberration carry over and be usable in the other Arks like the island, center and rag?”

Yes, just like with Scorched Earth.

Survivor Nch1418 asks, “First, are there plans to expand the story into the newly announced Aberration expansion and the other expansion coming in 2018? Second, will we be getting Explorer Notes from any new characters besides the six already introduced? Third, any small hints on what the 2018 DLC is going to involve or what it will be centered around (e.g. further story content, etc.)?”

The story continues in Aberration and reaches a climax in the third DLC, where All Is Revealed in an epic conclusion. Each Expansion introduces new characters and raises the stakes, while continuing the story of the characters who have survived previous ARKs (they might not make it out alive from subsequent ARKs though!).

Survivor Gibsy asks, “Are you guys still going ahead with the revamp of the older dinos? If so when are we likely to see it”

We have our design plans worked-out here for the Dino TLC pass, and it will be implemented and released this year.

ARK: 2x Evolution Event Weekend!

Survivors across ALL Platforms will be receiving a special Evolution Event++ perk this weekend! It's already live now and will remain active until Monday the 18th at 12PM EST. All Official Servers will be undergoing this evolutionary change which includes:

About This Game

As a man or woman stranded naked, freezing and starving on the shores of a mysterious island called ARK, you must hunt, harvest resources, craft items, grow crops, research technologies, and build shelters to withstand the elements. Use your cunning and resources to kill or tame & breed the leviathan dinosaurs and other primeval creatures roaming the land, and team up with or prey on hundreds of other players to survive, dominate... and escape!

Dinosaurs, Creatures, & Breeding! -- over 100+ creatures can be tamed using a challenging capture-&-affinity process, involving weakening a feral creature to knock it unconscious, and then nursing it back to health with appropriate food. Once tamed, you can issue commands to your tames, which it may follow depending on how well you’ve tamed and trained it. Tames, which can continue to level-up and consume food, can also carry Inventory and Equipment such as Armor, carry prey back to your settlement depending on their strength, and larger tames can be ridden and directly controlled! Fly a Pterodactyl over the snow-capped mountains, lift allies over enemy walls, race through the jungle with a pack of Raptors, tromp through an enemy base along a gigantic brontosaurus, or chase down prey on the back of a raging T-Rex! Take part in a dynamic ecosystem life-cycle with its own predator & prey hierarchies, where you are just one creature among many species struggling for dominance and survival. Tames can also be mated with the opposite gender, to selectively breed successive generations using a trait system based on recombinant genetic inheritance. This process includes both egg-based incubation and mammalian gestation lifecycles! Or put more simply, raise babies!

You must eat and drink to survive, with different kinds of plants & meat having different nutritional properties, including human meat. Ensuring a supply of fresh water to your home and inventory is a pressing concern. All physical actions come at a cost of food and water, long-distance travel is fraught with subsistence peril! Inventory weight makes you move slower, and the day/night cycle along with randomized weather patterns add another layer of challenge by altering the temperature of the environment, causing you to hunger or thirst more quickly. Build a fire or shelter, and craft a large variety of customizable clothing & armors, to help protect yourself against locational damage & extreme temperatures using the dynamic indoor/outdoor insulation calculation system!

By chopping down forests full of trees and mining metal and other precious resources, you can craft the parts to build massive multi-leveled structures composed of complex snap-linked parts, including ramps, beams, pillars, windows, doors, gates, remote gates, trapdoors, water pipes, faucets, generators, wires and all manner of electrical devices, and ladders among many other types. Structures have a load system to fall apart if enough support has been destroyed, so reinforcing your buildings is important. All structures and items can be painted to customize the look of your home, as well as placing dynamically per-pixel paintable signs, textual billboards, and other decorative objects. Shelter reduces the extremes of weather and provides security for yourself and your stash! Weapons, clothing & armor gear can also be painted to express your own visual style.

Pick seeds from the wild vegetation around you, plant them in plots that you lay down, water them and nurture them with fertilizer (everything poops after consuming calories, which can then be composted, and some fertilizer is better than others). Tend to your crops and they will grow to produce delicious and rare fruits, which can also be used to cook a plethora of logical recipes and make useful tonics! Explore to find the rarest of plant seeds that have the most powerful properties! Vegetarians & vegans can flourish, and it will be possible to master and conquer the ARK in a non-violent manner!

By bringing sufficient rare sacrificial items to special Summon locations, you can capture the attention of the one of the ARK’s god-like mythical creatures, who will arrive for battle. These gargantuan monstrosities provide an end-game goal for the most experienced groups of players and their armies of tames, and will yield extremely valuable progression items if they are defeated.

Create a Tribe and add your friends to it, and all your tames can be commanded by and allied to anyone in your Tribe. Your Tribe will also be able to respawn at any of your home spawn points. Promote members to Tribe Admins to reduce the burden of management. Distribute key items and pass-codes to provide access your shared village!

All items are crafted from Blueprints that have variable statistics and qualities, and require corresponding resources. More remote and harsh locales across the ARK tend to have better resources, including the tallest mountains, darkest caves, and depths of the ocean! Level-Up your player character by gaining experience through performance actions, Level-Up your tames, and learn new "Engrams" to be able to craft Items from memory without the use of blueprints, even if you die! Customize the underlying physical look of your character with hair, eye, and skin tones, along with an array of body proportion modifiers. As you explore the vast ARK, you'll find clues left by other Survivors who have made the ARK their home in ages past, in the form of collectible detailed 3D "Explorer Notes". By uncovering all of these, you can begin to piece together the true nature of the ARK, and discover its purpose!

Everything you craft has durability and will wear-out from extended use if not repaired, and when you leave the game, your character remains sleeping in the persistent world. Your inventory physically exists in boxes or on your character in the world. Everything can be looted & stolen, so to achieve security you must build-up, team-up, or have tames to guard your stash. Death is permanent, and you can even knock out, capture, and force-feed other players to use them for your own purposes, such as extracting their blood to for transfusions, harvesting their fecal matter to use as fertilizer, or using them as food for your carnivorous tames!

The mysterious ARK is a formidable and imposing environment, composed of many natural and unnatural structures, above-ground, below-ground, and underwater. By fully exploring its secrets, you’ll find the most exotic procedurally randomized creatures and rare blueprints. Also to be found are Explorer Notes that are dynamically updated into the game, written by previous human denizens of the ARK from across the millennia, creatively detailing the creatures and backstory of the ARK and its creatures. Fully develop your in-game ARK-map through exploration, write custom points of interest onto it, and craft a Compass or GPS coordinates to aid exploring with other players, whom you can communicate with via proximity text & voice chat, or long-distance radio. Construct & draw in-game signs for other players to help them or lead them astray... And yet.. how do you ultimately challenge the Creators and Conquer the ARK? A definitive end-game is planned.

On the 100+ player servers, your character, everything you built, and your tames, stay in-game even when you leave. You can even physically travel your character and items between the network of ARK's by accessing the Obelisks and uploading (or downloading) your data from the Steam Economy! A galaxy of ARKs, each slightly different than the previous, to leave your mark on and conquer, one at a time -- special official ARKs will be unveiled on the World-map for limited times in singular themed events with corresponding limited-run items! Furthermore, you can now design or randomize your own unique 'Procedurally Generated ARKs', for infinite replayability and endless surprises.

You can play single-player local games, and bring your character and items between unofficial player-hosted servers, back and forth from singleplayer to multiplayer. Mod the game, with full Steam Workshop support and customized Unreal Engine 4 editor. See how we built our ARK using our maps and assets as an example. Host your own server and configure your ARK precisely to your liking. We want to see what you create!

The over-the-top hyper real imagery of the ARK its creatures is brought to expressive life using a highly-customized Unreal Engine 4, with fully dynamic lighting & global illumination, weather systems (rain, fog, snow, etc) & true-to-life volumetric cloud simulation, and the latest in advanced DirectX11 and DirectX12 rendering techniques. Music by award-winning composer of "Ori and the Blind Forest", Gareth Coker!